"It Sounded Like Firecrackers": Four Bullets and a "Motherly Hand," 30 Years On

Whispers in the Loggia ^ | 5/13/11 | Rocco Palmo

[marshmallow]

Thirty years ago today, prior to the General Audience on this feast of Our Lady of Fatima, four shots failed to kill the Pope, but shook the world nonetheless....

YouTube Video of Shooting

As a friend who happened to be at the edge of the Square that day recently recalled the moment, "It sounded like firecrackers. And nobody knew what happened -- I thought 'They wouldn't have fireworks at the audience'....

"Then the car sped away, and word just spread. And nobody left."

And as the crowd stayed, a picture of the "Black Madonna," Our Lady of Czestochowa -- the patroness of Poland -- was placed on the empty papal chair, as an American prelate on hand spontaneously stepped to the microphone to lead the Rosary. Before the five decades were out, he was able to report that, even for his injuries, John Paul II wasn't in grave danger and had a solid outlook for recovery.

(In the weeks before today's commemoration, the story returned to the headlines as the bishop who led the prayers -- retired New York auxiliary Anthony Mestice, the Big Apple's first prelate of Italian roots -- died at 87.)

* * *

Many, of course, have thought the Polish Pope's rebound to be the end of the story. Such was the man and his message, however, that it would be anything but.

On its own, the assassination attempt -- and John Paul's recovery -- quickly became part of now-Blessed's legend... but the chapter's heft would only go on to be burnished by two key postscripts.